Who knew Phoebe Waller-Bridge had a career before Fleabag?! I mean, I did a little bit, but only as a writer for the beloved Killing Eve. To my surprise, Waller-Bridge had another taut and hysterical comedy under her belt: Crashing. This six-episode gem, similar to Fleabag, was created and written by, also starring Waller-Bridge. This girl has unlimited talent!
Unlike her most popular show though, this comedy did spend a significant amount of time with a small host of other characters. The show opens with Lulu heading to surprise her best friend Anthony. She shows up at an abandoned hospital where he, along with his fiancé Kate, and several other of their friends live. Also happening right as she shows up is a scavenger hunt in honor of the outlandish Sam’s birthday wishes. This is the catalyst for a lot of chaos over the next bit of time, so I’m going to try my best to split up everyone properly.
Probably the main focus of the series is Anthony’s relationship with both Kate and Lulu. While he’s engaged to Kate, it’s clear as time goes on that their relationship isn’t as strong as we’re first led to believe. Part of that is because Kate doesn’t really totally love Anthony, and that both Anthony and Lulu love each other. This all leads to some hooking up, but at the end of the day, Anthony stays with Kate at Lulu’s insistence. Of course, that doesn’t stop the two from kissing in the kitchen before Kate drops a bit of a cliffhanging ending line of, “I’m not f****** stupid!” – love it.
Another central couple is Melody, who’s found Kate’s older co-worker Colin, to be the perfect muse. She paints him for most of the season, although it’s clear she wants it to be more. This all just thoroughly confuses Colin, who’s getting divorced after figuring out his wife’s got a new man in her life. There are times when you really see Colin about to give into Melody, but then checks himself. It’s probably for good measure because we find out that Melody’s got some daddy issues. Colin hilariously falls out a window in the last episode, but while he’s being hospitalized, Melody helps give him the courage to stand up to his ex-wife a little bit.
Finally, there is the rambunctious and womanizer, Sam. At his birthday party, he’s paired off with fellow roommate Fred for the scavenger hunt. At first he is really put off by the pairing, but through the course of the night we see a real bond start to form between the two. Early on Sam acknowledges that Fred is gay, rebuffs his advances, but then still leads him on anyway. Things get more complicated when Fred starts dating an Aussie named Will (low-key the funniest character), and it’s clear to the audience that Sam definitely has feelings for Fred. Eventually, Will turns out to be a bit of a turd and Sam and Fred finally give into their feelings.
Overall, this show was loud, fast, and fun, and I am super bummed that there is only one season of it! I don’t know if the one season was intentional or not, but the six episodes we got were fabulous. The chemistry between this group of friends was both parts sincere and awkward, and the humor laced throughout was just perfect. Phoebe Waller-Bridge needs to keep creating forever!